When Pesto met Salsa they fell in love and had a baby girl named Pebre. Pebre is a condiment from Chile with Catalan origins. It is a fresh sauce that is perfectly balanced with pungency, heat and overall goodness. The word pebre in Catalan means pepper. This dish is usually made with Aji peppers from South America but due to their lack of availability in most places, I used the ubiquitous jalapeño in this recipe for your convenience.
Pebre sauce can be traced back to the arrival of Catalan engineers in Santiago under the direction of Italian architect Joaquin Toesca for the construction of Tajamares de Santiago, channels, river walls and bridges for the main river. The workers made a simple sauce with oil, vinegar, cilantro, salt and Aji peppers with what was commonly available to them. This is similar to the Catalan sauce known as Romesco which they would have been very familiar with but lacked the pine nuts and almonds.
I have used this as a dipping sauce for toasted baguette slices and as a marinade for a pork loin roast which I braised. I also used it as a condiment for the same pork recipe. Like all of the other condiments I make, this one is super easy and full of flavor.
Homemade condiments have really been missing in my culinary arsenal due to the cultural grooming of Americans to buy bottled condiments at the market. The variety is lacking on the shelves and bottled stuff just doesn’t taste as good as the homemade stuff. Another bonus of making your own condiment is that you know exactly what is in it. There is one downside, a jar of Pebre won’t last two years in your fridge like a bottle of salad dressing from the store, crazy I know.
This sauce is commonly used with bread and meat and once you try it you will see why. It is exactly like a pesto mixed with a salsa, delish!
Ingredients
- 2 tomatoes, chopped
- 6 scallions, sliced thin
- 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 jalapeno, diced
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Sriracha to taste
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients in a medium sized bowl and keep in fridge up to 3 days.
- Take out of fridge 30 minutes before using.
- Use as a condiment, marinade, with wine or beer as a pan de-glazer or as a dipping sauce for a baguette.
